When people hear the word 'Cult', a certain image tends to burst into their brain.
Brainwashed devotees worshipping a crazed narcissist and ready to sacrifice anything for them.
While Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, and the Solar Temple have given cults a violent reputation, most cults keep a much lower profile. Cults are everywhere. There's probably a cult in your town, and the tricks they use to lure people in aren't complicated, but rather, tried and tested social manipulation tactics that anyone could fall for.
So what is a 'Cult'? How do they trap people, and how do people end up believing them?
A cult can form around anything:
Politics
Religion
Business
Self Improvement
Therapy
Hate
Aliens
Meditation
Eco-Friendly Lifestyle
Cults are not solely religious and not all New Religious Movements or unorthodox groups are cults. 'Cult' does not mean 'religion or group I don't like', but refers to a very specific structure and characteristics.
The Symbionese Liberation Army, famous for kidnapping Patty Hearst, was a political cult.
Amway is a corporate cult.
And the Children of God, the cult that Joaquin Phoenix (Actor from movies The Joker, Her, Gladiator) was raised in, is a religious cult.
Rastafarianism, Bahai, and Wicca are New Religious Movements but not cults. They don't deceive people into joining or force them to cut off ties with non-Rastafarianian friends and family.
It is not beliefs that make a cult but their authoritarian structure, their deceptive recruitment, and how controlling they are. That is why cults are also called Totalist Groups and why they share their structure with totalitarian regimes.
Cults aren't about belief, they're about control.
To spot a cult, look out for the following 3 characteristics.
1. A charismatic and Authoritarian Leader
Cult Leaders always have two qualities. Charisma and Authoritarianism. A cult leader needs to have enough confidence, charm, or drive to pull people in. And they are always narcissists.
Cult leaders like Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara, and Marshall Applewhite all fit at least eight of the nine criteria for people with Narcissistic Personality Disorders. Their charisma and grandiose sense of self-importance attract people. But after the initial charm, their authoritarian nature and lack of empathy create a culture of fear and terror, which keeps people in the cult.
2. Thought Reform
Coercive persuasion, brainwashing, mind control. Whatever you want to call it. It's a process through which people can change the minds and thought patterns of other people without them realizing it is happening. Cults, along with other cult-like groups such as terrorist organizations, hate groups, and totalitarian movements all use Through Reform. It even happens in cases of domestic abuse. Through reform or Brainwashing doesn't turn people into zombies or Manchurian Candidates. There are no secret drugs or hypnosis. It's simply, words and group pressures.
3. Exploitation
Once the charismatic leader has indoctrinated a flower through Thought Reform, they begin exploiting them economically, politically. sexually, or psychologicaly.
People end up in cults or totalist groups in a number of different ways.
Many are kidnapped or forcibly enlisted; Like the estimated 20,000 children forced into Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. Once forced into these groups, there charismatic and authoritarian leaders can begin the indoctrination.
Or you can be born int a cult or totalitarian state; The children raised in the Children of God cult or North Korean citizens didn't choose to join, but they still live with the same Thought Reform processes and authoritarianism.
Or you can be recruited. There is a common stereotype of a cult recruit. A seeker. A slightly wacky hippy type, very into hummus and crystals, who went into looking for enlightenment found in a cult, and can now assemble a Kalashnikov while doing yoga.
But study after study has discovered that there is no personality profile for a typical terrorist or cult recruit. Any of us can be vulnerable given the right conditions, the right group, and the right time. Major life changes such as a recent move, a breakup, a death in the family, career shift, war, natural disaster, or global pandemic can leave someone isolated from their usual support structures. During these times, we all tend to look for friends, are more open to strangers, and are more willing to accept things we normally wouldn't.
Usually, it's the cults that go out looking for followers. And cults recruit everywhere. Lectures, seminars, retreats, or going door to door. They run schools, businesses, political groups, meditation or yoga classes, weight loss programs, and even therapy clinics. Most cults even have front groups set up to appeal to a range of interests.
The Unification Church, commonly known as the Moonies, has hundreds of front groups, including academic and professional groups, dozens of businesses, and media such as the New World Encyclopedia and The Washington Times.
The Church of Scientology has front groups like Sterling Management, who do corporate training, or the Narconon drug rehabilitation program, or hilariously, the Cult Awareness Network.
Cults are always deceptive during recruitment. New recruits will interact with a front group, unaware that it is related to a cult. There is never any mention of galactic overlords, celibacy, polygamy, suicide mission, 20-hour workdays, or forced marriages. That all comes much later.
For now, it's just a group interested in bettering themselves and the world through mindfulness, or new biblical interpretations, or a public speaking workshop, nothing to worry about. The Unification Church calls this 'Heavenly Deception', other Bible-based cults call it, 'Giving Milk before Meat'. It's okay to lie to new recruits since it's for their own good.
Once within reach, the new recruit will be love bombed. 'Love Bombing' is a tactic in which cult members smother recruits with flattery, praise, and affection. Love bombing is strongly effective on anyone, but especially so on people who already felt isolated and ignored.
New recruits will gradually find their free time filled with group classes, meetings, dinners, and retreats. Recruits' lives are swallowed up by the group. Their entire day is filled with cult-related work assignments, studying, lectures, meditating, chanting, etc. This has the added bonus of keeping the recruit awake for long periods. Which affects their critical thinking abilities and simply leaves them with no time to reflect on what's happening.
May cults will then begin to pressure new members to eave their families, friends, and jobs. The Fee Domain Radio is an Internet-based cult led by self-proclaimed philosopher, Stefan Molyneux, known for its practice of encouraging its new recruits to 'deFOO'. To reject their Family Of Origin.
This isolation tactic is commonly in cults to force their members to become dependent on the group. Removing family removes a fundamental source of emotional and financial support for people and a source of reality-checking. Romantic relationships and friendships must also be scrutinized even within the group. This is why many cults practiced either celibacy or polygamy. Because it stops people from forming a close romantic bond with only one person. The only relationship they can have must be with the entire group or the group leader.
To replace families, many cult leaders take on the familial titles. David Berg, head of the Children of God, was known as Dad or Grandpa. Elizabeth Claire, Prophet of The Church Universal and Triumphant, was Mother. And Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, was Brother Number One.
Many cults encourage confessing traumas either to the whole cult or with an assigned member. The cult will usually lead the cult recruit to exaggerate or even misremember their pasts negatively. This causes guilt and anxiety about their former personal connection and past. They were 'bad people' before joining the group and the group is the only way they can become better people. The group will position itself as the only sanctuary in which those feelings can be expressed. So now the follower will seek more comfort from the group even though its the group is causing the discomfort. Everyone is constantly confessing things to the cult, sharing with one member of the cult, means sharing it to everyone. So privacy does not exist. They cannot share doubts or complaints, or tell anyone if they are being abused.
The lack of free time, sleep deprivation, and destruction of individuality mean that there is no time for self-reflection. Recruits suffer triple isolation from friends and family, from other cult members, and from their own minds. As the follower grows more isolated, they begin to rely on approval from the cult. This is where human weakness to peer pressure can be used against them. Even when a cult member has doubts, they are made to feel like they are in the wrong.
When they look around, they see only happy believing followers. No one expresses any doubt. And so when a follower feels doubt, they feel alone and wrong. It is them that must work harder to better understand the group. The group or the group leader is never wrong.
In a cult, you are rewarded for good behavior with praise and privileges. But those that behave in the wrong way are shunned and punished.
So as the cult is isolating you from your ordinary reality, they provide you with a new and unanimously approved worldview. Now a total 'all-or-nothing' point of view begins to be preached to them. They teach that every single word of the ideology is completely true or none of it is. If you have any doubts, you will be excluded and you will suffer.
The way that these ideas are told also matters. Every cult or totalitarian system has its own loaded language. Scientology for example uses terms like 'reactive mind', 'suppressive person', and 'case gain'. Loaded language prevents followers from expressing anything outside of the cult's ideology.
New vague words that can stand for anything are used without the things themselves actually being discussed. Why listen to your family telling you you're in a cult when they're 'suppressive people' and 'suppressive people' shouldn't be listened to.
All kinds of horrible names are given to outsiders: Systemites, Unclean, or Satanic. This creates an Us-versus-Them mindset. Now any criticism of the cult is seen as an attack. You are in the cult or you are an enemy. There is no in-between. Now their whole existence is the group.
If they leave, they are nothing, and joining the outside world is painted as dangerous. Many cults preach that anyone that leaves will most likely die or end up living on the streets in no time. Here, the cult's control becomes total.
Allowing no other beliefs and no other affiliations. This is why cults are called Totalist Groups. They consume every aspect of the follower's life. While an average Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim can also enjoy and Astrology, someone this far into a cult has nothing outside of it. All activities, relationships, and beliefs revolve around it. The deeper you go towards the center of the cult, the more distant from reality you start to become.
The beliefs revealed to the inner circle of the cult are sometimes so extreme that the outer circles must be protected from it until they are ready. For example, in Scientology, the public and new recruits were protected from their most extreme ideas. Like that of the dictator of the 'Galactic Confederacy', Xenu and of alien souls bursting forth from volcanoes and jumping onto human bodies. The public only found out this story after it was leaked by ex-cult members, journalists, and the Internet.
Once the follower has reached this stage where the cult's ideology has totally consumed them, they'll believe and do anything. Followers can now be exploited and deployed. In most cases, cult members will end up losing a few years of their lives, going broke, or ending up with too many supplement ***** that they can't sell.
But cults can take an unfortunately dangerous and deadly route sometimes. Which is why it's important to spot a cult's characteristics and the methods they use to isolate and control people.
______________________________________________________________
A partial transcription of the Cogito's video titled, What is a Cult?
You can watch the video on YøùTùbé here. You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
Q: What do you mean by 'partial'? Are you trying to hide some information from us by not including parts of the video?
A: Nupe. The parts that I have not included in this post are some humour by the author that delivered and can only be appreciated/understood better in video format.
Brainwashed devotees worshipping a crazed narcissist and ready to sacrifice anything for them.
While Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, and the Solar Temple have given cults a violent reputation, most cults keep a much lower profile. Cults are everywhere. There's probably a cult in your town, and the tricks they use to lure people in aren't complicated, but rather, tried and tested social manipulation tactics that anyone could fall for.
So what is a 'Cult'? How do they trap people, and how do people end up believing them?
A cult can form around anything:
Politics
Religion
Business
Self Improvement
Therapy
Hate
Aliens
Meditation
Eco-Friendly Lifestyle
Cults are not solely religious and not all New Religious Movements or unorthodox groups are cults. 'Cult' does not mean 'religion or group I don't like', but refers to a very specific structure and characteristics.
The Symbionese Liberation Army, famous for kidnapping Patty Hearst, was a political cult.
Amway is a corporate cult.
And the Children of God, the cult that Joaquin Phoenix (Actor from movies The Joker, Her, Gladiator) was raised in, is a religious cult.
Rastafarianism, Bahai, and Wicca are New Religious Movements but not cults. They don't deceive people into joining or force them to cut off ties with non-Rastafarianian friends and family.
It is not beliefs that make a cult but their authoritarian structure, their deceptive recruitment, and how controlling they are. That is why cults are also called Totalist Groups and why they share their structure with totalitarian regimes.
Cults aren't about belief, they're about control.
To spot a cult, look out for the following 3 characteristics.
1. A charismatic and Authoritarian Leader
Cult Leaders always have two qualities. Charisma and Authoritarianism. A cult leader needs to have enough confidence, charm, or drive to pull people in. And they are always narcissists.
Cult leaders like Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara, and Marshall Applewhite all fit at least eight of the nine criteria for people with Narcissistic Personality Disorders. Their charisma and grandiose sense of self-importance attract people. But after the initial charm, their authoritarian nature and lack of empathy create a culture of fear and terror, which keeps people in the cult.
2. Thought Reform
Coercive persuasion, brainwashing, mind control. Whatever you want to call it. It's a process through which people can change the minds and thought patterns of other people without them realizing it is happening. Cults, along with other cult-like groups such as terrorist organizations, hate groups, and totalitarian movements all use Through Reform. It even happens in cases of domestic abuse. Through reform or Brainwashing doesn't turn people into zombies or Manchurian Candidates. There are no secret drugs or hypnosis. It's simply, words and group pressures.
3. Exploitation
Once the charismatic leader has indoctrinated a flower through Thought Reform, they begin exploiting them economically, politically. sexually, or psychologicaly.
People end up in cults or totalist groups in a number of different ways.
Many are kidnapped or forcibly enlisted; Like the estimated 20,000 children forced into Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. Once forced into these groups, there charismatic and authoritarian leaders can begin the indoctrination.
Or you can be born int a cult or totalitarian state; The children raised in the Children of God cult or North Korean citizens didn't choose to join, but they still live with the same Thought Reform processes and authoritarianism.
Or you can be recruited. There is a common stereotype of a cult recruit. A seeker. A slightly wacky hippy type, very into hummus and crystals, who went into looking for enlightenment found in a cult, and can now assemble a Kalashnikov while doing yoga.
But study after study has discovered that there is no personality profile for a typical terrorist or cult recruit. Any of us can be vulnerable given the right conditions, the right group, and the right time. Major life changes such as a recent move, a breakup, a death in the family, career shift, war, natural disaster, or global pandemic can leave someone isolated from their usual support structures. During these times, we all tend to look for friends, are more open to strangers, and are more willing to accept things we normally wouldn't.
Usually, it's the cults that go out looking for followers. And cults recruit everywhere. Lectures, seminars, retreats, or going door to door. They run schools, businesses, political groups, meditation or yoga classes, weight loss programs, and even therapy clinics. Most cults even have front groups set up to appeal to a range of interests.
The Unification Church, commonly known as the Moonies, has hundreds of front groups, including academic and professional groups, dozens of businesses, and media such as the New World Encyclopedia and The Washington Times.
The Church of Scientology has front groups like Sterling Management, who do corporate training, or the Narconon drug rehabilitation program, or hilariously, the Cult Awareness Network.
Cults are always deceptive during recruitment. New recruits will interact with a front group, unaware that it is related to a cult. There is never any mention of galactic overlords, celibacy, polygamy, suicide mission, 20-hour workdays, or forced marriages. That all comes much later.
For now, it's just a group interested in bettering themselves and the world through mindfulness, or new biblical interpretations, or a public speaking workshop, nothing to worry about. The Unification Church calls this 'Heavenly Deception', other Bible-based cults call it, 'Giving Milk before Meat'. It's okay to lie to new recruits since it's for their own good.
Once within reach, the new recruit will be love bombed. 'Love Bombing' is a tactic in which cult members smother recruits with flattery, praise, and affection. Love bombing is strongly effective on anyone, but especially so on people who already felt isolated and ignored.
New recruits will gradually find their free time filled with group classes, meetings, dinners, and retreats. Recruits' lives are swallowed up by the group. Their entire day is filled with cult-related work assignments, studying, lectures, meditating, chanting, etc. This has the added bonus of keeping the recruit awake for long periods. Which affects their critical thinking abilities and simply leaves them with no time to reflect on what's happening.
May cults will then begin to pressure new members to eave their families, friends, and jobs. The Fee Domain Radio is an Internet-based cult led by self-proclaimed philosopher, Stefan Molyneux, known for its practice of encouraging its new recruits to 'deFOO'. To reject their Family Of Origin.
This isolation tactic is commonly in cults to force their members to become dependent on the group. Removing family removes a fundamental source of emotional and financial support for people and a source of reality-checking. Romantic relationships and friendships must also be scrutinized even within the group. This is why many cults practiced either celibacy or polygamy. Because it stops people from forming a close romantic bond with only one person. The only relationship they can have must be with the entire group or the group leader.
To replace families, many cult leaders take on the familial titles. David Berg, head of the Children of God, was known as Dad or Grandpa. Elizabeth Claire, Prophet of The Church Universal and Triumphant, was Mother. And Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, was Brother Number One.
Many cults encourage confessing traumas either to the whole cult or with an assigned member. The cult will usually lead the cult recruit to exaggerate or even misremember their pasts negatively. This causes guilt and anxiety about their former personal connection and past. They were 'bad people' before joining the group and the group is the only way they can become better people. The group will position itself as the only sanctuary in which those feelings can be expressed. So now the follower will seek more comfort from the group even though its the group is causing the discomfort. Everyone is constantly confessing things to the cult, sharing with one member of the cult, means sharing it to everyone. So privacy does not exist. They cannot share doubts or complaints, or tell anyone if they are being abused.
The lack of free time, sleep deprivation, and destruction of individuality mean that there is no time for self-reflection. Recruits suffer triple isolation from friends and family, from other cult members, and from their own minds. As the follower grows more isolated, they begin to rely on approval from the cult. This is where human weakness to peer pressure can be used against them. Even when a cult member has doubts, they are made to feel like they are in the wrong.
When they look around, they see only happy believing followers. No one expresses any doubt. And so when a follower feels doubt, they feel alone and wrong. It is them that must work harder to better understand the group. The group or the group leader is never wrong.
In a cult, you are rewarded for good behavior with praise and privileges. But those that behave in the wrong way are shunned and punished.
So as the cult is isolating you from your ordinary reality, they provide you with a new and unanimously approved worldview. Now a total 'all-or-nothing' point of view begins to be preached to them. They teach that every single word of the ideology is completely true or none of it is. If you have any doubts, you will be excluded and you will suffer.
The way that these ideas are told also matters. Every cult or totalitarian system has its own loaded language. Scientology for example uses terms like 'reactive mind', 'suppressive person', and 'case gain'. Loaded language prevents followers from expressing anything outside of the cult's ideology.
New vague words that can stand for anything are used without the things themselves actually being discussed. Why listen to your family telling you you're in a cult when they're 'suppressive people' and 'suppressive people' shouldn't be listened to.
All kinds of horrible names are given to outsiders: Systemites, Unclean, or Satanic. This creates an Us-versus-Them mindset. Now any criticism of the cult is seen as an attack. You are in the cult or you are an enemy. There is no in-between. Now their whole existence is the group.
If they leave, they are nothing, and joining the outside world is painted as dangerous. Many cults preach that anyone that leaves will most likely die or end up living on the streets in no time. Here, the cult's control becomes total.
Allowing no other beliefs and no other affiliations. This is why cults are called Totalist Groups. They consume every aspect of the follower's life. While an average Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim can also enjoy and Astrology, someone this far into a cult has nothing outside of it. All activities, relationships, and beliefs revolve around it. The deeper you go towards the center of the cult, the more distant from reality you start to become.
The beliefs revealed to the inner circle of the cult are sometimes so extreme that the outer circles must be protected from it until they are ready. For example, in Scientology, the public and new recruits were protected from their most extreme ideas. Like that of the dictator of the 'Galactic Confederacy', Xenu and of alien souls bursting forth from volcanoes and jumping onto human bodies. The public only found out this story after it was leaked by ex-cult members, journalists, and the Internet.
Once the follower has reached this stage where the cult's ideology has totally consumed them, they'll believe and do anything. Followers can now be exploited and deployed. In most cases, cult members will end up losing a few years of their lives, going broke, or ending up with too many supplement ***** that they can't sell.
But cults can take an unfortunately dangerous and deadly route sometimes. Which is why it's important to spot a cult's characteristics and the methods they use to isolate and control people.
______________________________________________________________
A partial transcription of the Cogito's video titled, What is a Cult?
You can watch the video on YøùTùbé here. You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
Q: What do you mean by 'partial'? Are you trying to hide some information from us by not including parts of the video?
A: Nupe. The parts that I have not included in this post are some humour by the author that delivered and can only be appreciated/understood better in video format.
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